Spain Investigates Wind, Solar Power Plants for Possible Fraud

Oct. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Spain is inspecting renewable-energy installations suspected of claiming they started producing electricity before they actually entered service.

The National Energy Commission will probe wind-turbine stations said to have begun generating power in the final months of 2007, the regulator said yesterday in a statement. The ministry of industry asked that solar-energy parks likewise be investigated, said a ministry spokesman who declined to be named.

Wind generators, which supply about 11 percent of Spain's power, and solar stations earn premium rates that are being scaled back. The generators have an incentive to get their stations operating as soon as possible to get the better price which, in the case of photovoltaic stations, lasts 25 years.

More than 100 million euros ($127 million) may be at stake, the Expansion newspaper reported today, using calculations from government and industry documents.

Sept '07: Wind energy exec indicted [National Wind Watch]

A federal grand jury has indicted a Twin Cities wind energy developer for mail fraud and money laundering, accusing him of overbilling Xcel Energy for electricity and collecting wrongful incentive payments from the state of Minnesota.
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According to the indictment, Jaunich founded NAE Shaokatan Power Partners LLC around 1999 and had an arrangement to generate electricity for Xcel Energy. Between September 2003 and 2005, he allegedly submitted numerous inflated invoices to both Xcel and the state Commerce Department, which runs an incentive program subsidizing alternative energy projects with direct payments.
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The payments from the Commerce Department came out of its Renewable Energy Production Incentive program, at the time using money from the state’s general fund, Commerce spokesman Bill Walsh said. Commerce was paying NAE Shaokatan 1.47 cents per kilowatt-hour it generated and paid the company about $140,000 before Commerce investigators got involved, Walsh said.

“Our energy folks auditing the program saw results from this wind project that were so good they questioned whether it was possible under the laws of physics,” Walsh said. Walsh confirmed NAE Shaokatan returned $144,561 to the department.